Question 1: Race as a Socially Significant Category
Many of the social and political issues present in society today are rooted in the ideology of racism and ethnic misconceptions. The tragedy is that no one has yet to realize how racial biases and confusion affects the way people view and handle injustices. Biologically, every individual in the globe is genetically similar to another person, the probable reason that we are referred to as the human race. However, races have been developed by the society as social constructs that provide people with an identity or a label to their names. The society eliminates the utopian ideal introduced by biology to portray that there are no differences between whites and blacks or that all individuals are equal. The truth of the matter is that people are not all the same and racial categories point out the differences amongst them. Unfortunately, using race as a social construct has only brought bigotry and trouble in the society (Richeson & Sommers, 2016).
Question 2: Housing Discrimination
Unlike the pre-civil rights period where discrimination and racial prejudice was evident, the discrimination present today is less identifiable causing challenges for social scientific measurement and conceptualization. Housing segregation amongst the minority groups continues to exist due to economic disparities and personal choice. The income differences between the whites and the minorities in the United States are still high such that the disadvantaged groups cannot afford to live similar lifestyles as the Whites. Also, it is believed that the minorities prefer living amongst their people. Hence, even though an African American family has the means to live in a better neighborhood, they may still be unwilling to leave their home areas for fear of being harmed by the Whites (Fischer, 2013). Another issue that has resulted in residential segregation is gentrification. Gentrification has allowed high-income residents to displace low-income earners from their estates and houses.
References
Fischer, M. J. (2013). Black and white homebuyer, homeowner, and household segregation in the United States, 1990–2010. Social science research, 42(6), 1726-1736.
Richeson, J. A., & Sommers, S. R. (2016). Toward a Social Psychology of Race and Race Relations for the Twenty-First Century. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 439-463.
